THE APRONSo much was
said in my former volume, The Meaning of Masonry, in explanation of the Masonic Apron,
that it seems needless to speak at length of it again . Yet, to maintain
continuity of thought, it seems desirable once more to refer to its
symbolism at this point, since we have been closely considering the manner in
which consciousness becomes expanded and enveloped in bodies or vehicles
appropriate to that expansion ; and we have been dealing with the arcanum or
"mystery" propounded by St. Paul as to how the "dead" (the as yet uninitiated
and spiritually unquickened), are raised up to a new order of life and the
new kind of embodiment they take on, or automatically fabricate, in the
process.

Consciousness cannot exist without
body . "To every seed (or conscious unit) its own body," says the
Apostle-Initiate; or, as we Masons may paraphrase it, to every Degree of
life is allotted the appropriate Apron, proclaiming the wearer's spiritual
rank . As no one can enter the Lodge unclothed with the Apron, so no
one can enter any of the unseen worlds without wearing a body
appropriate. There are bodies terrestrial, adapted The to use on the lower planes of
life ; and bodies Apron celestial or ethereal, adapted to functioning
on higher ones. Man is a composite of many bodies, one within the other ;
though ordinarily he is unaware of it and has not yet organized them and
come to know them separately, as the Initiate is expected to do .

The physical body is but one, and
the grossest, of the terrestrial bodies ; it is but a plaster of organized
chemical particles, within and around which his subtler bodies exist,
and for which it forms a nexus or fixation-point. When totally
discarded at death it disintegrates ; when partially abandoned in sleep or
anmsthesia its energies persist passively, and connection with it is kept by
the cabletow or "silver cord." In each case the Ego, whether aware of it
or not, stands minus its physical sheath and enclosed in its remaining
ones. And a similar divesting of each successive body may take place
until only the ultimate Ego remains .

That Ego, the ultimate Divine
Principle in man, is represented by the triangular flap of the Masonic
Apron. The triangle (or pyramid form) is the geometrical symbol for Spirit or
Fire, and the ultimate Spirit of man may be likened to a pointed flame or
tongue of fire . (The word "pyramid" derives from the Greek word pur,
fire).

The body or form (or rather the
succession of bodies or forms), which that Ego assumes on descending into
manifestation through the ladder-like planes of the Universe, aggregating to
itself and organizing around itself material from each, is represented
by the lower quadrangular part of the Apron . The quadrangle, square, or
superficies, is the geometrical symbol for Body, Form, Physicalisation . The
quadrangle is further appropriate because (i) all Body is constituted of
four elements, earth, water, air, fire ; (2) because the human organism is
fourfold, a complex of four distinct departments, physical, etheric,
emotional and mental, and (3) because in man the three sub-human kingdoms
(mineral, vegetable and animal), are unified into the human synthesis .

The candidate's first investiture
with the Apron is symbolic therefore of his Ego's entrance into this
world, and becoming clothed with form or body. He is meant to realize himself as
a sevenfold being, perfectly constituted originally in the Divine Mirid ;
his triangle of Spirit combining with the quadrangle of materialized form to
make up the perfect number seven . He is meant to realize that he has
descended to a condition of embodiment and limitation of consciousness for
the purpose of acquiring experience in those conditions, and of
performing certain work upon himself which shall raise him- to full realization of
his own ultimate nature and of the Divine purpose in him, and that though
his present state or form is one of restrictedness and humiliation, it
will never disgrace him if he never disgraces it.

In the First Degree, the
triangular flap of the Apron is kept erect . In the Second it is lowered . Thereby
is denoted the physiological truth that the Ego or human Spirit on
entering this world at birth does not immediately attain full
embodiment, but at first is, as it were, an overhovering presence, organically
connected with the body, but only The gradually taking possession of it
. We recognize this Apron truth in practical life. Moral and legal
responsibility is never attributed to a child under seven years of age,
for the moral sense has not yet developed . Important physiological changes
connected with puberty occur at the age of fourteen . Civic responsibility is
denied until twenty-one is reached . The basic reason for all this is the
occult truth that the Ego does not attain its maximum of incarnation until
twenty-one. Accordingly it is not until age is reached that a man is
presumed competent to enter the Craft and undertake the science of himself.

As the Ego immerses itself in its
body and works upon it, it creates changes in it, whether for good or
evil. It either organizes or disorganizes its vehicles
according to its will and desires . It becomes an artificer in metals, whether base
or precious ; it either stores itself with ornaments and jewels and the
invaluable furniture of self-knowledge, or with useless trumperies and
grotesque contrivances of which sooner or later it must get rid . Assuming
its activities to have been wisely directed, they are evidenced in
the Apron by the blue rosettes imposed upon it in the Second Degree ; if they
are persisted in and the Spirit more and more subjugates and controls the
Form, that increasing domination and the further progress made in the
science are testified to by the additional elaborations found in the Apron in
the Third Degree. Still more advanced progress is evidenced by further
changes and beautification of the Apron in the Royal Arch Degrees, and in the
Grand Lodges of provinces, and of the nation .

The Tau displayed upon the Apron
worn by those of Master rank is a form of the Cross, and also of the Hammer
of Thor, of Scandinavian religion . It is displayed triply, to signify that
the wearer has brought his three lower natures (physical, emotional, and
mental) under complete control ; that he has crucified them and keeps them
repressed by the hammer of a strong will .

The further important point should
be noticed that the Apron covers the creative, generative organ of the
body ; and it is especially to these that the significance of the Tau
attaches . Spiritual self building and the erection of the "superstructure"
are dependent upon the supply of creative energy available from the
generative nervous centre, the "power-house" of the human organism . Thence that
energy passes upwards through other ganglionic "transformers" and,
reaching the brain, becomes finally sublimated and transformed to
consciousness . Conservation of that energy is therefore indispensable both
for generating consciousness and providing the material for the finer vehicle
or "superstructure" in which that consciousness may function ; the
life-energy is always creative, either in the direction of physical
propagation or in that of super-physical up-building ; hence the importance
attached in religious spheres to celibacy .

It should also be noted that in
the three Craft Degrees, the investiture with the Apron is made in the West
; and not by the Master, but by his principal officer who is deputed
to bestow it . The meaning behind this important detail is that while the
human Ego is resident in this temporal world ("the West"), Nature, as the
chief officer and deputy of Providence, supplies it with bodies of her own
material and temporal substance . But in all cases beyond those three, the
investiture takes place in the "East" the realm of spirit, and from the
hands of the Master himself. For the progressed soul receives a
clothing beyond Nature's power to supply ; and, without intermediate hands, "God
giveth it a body as it pleaseth Him," and to every such soul its own body,
according to its measure of progress and consciousness.